Liquor store opens in Main St. Center

Jeremy Greenamyre said he and his brother, Daniel, didn't necessarily think they'd ever own a liquor store.

But in fact the Greenamyres, who are more known for their work with their family's rental and property business, are the owners of the newest retail outlet in the city: Lansing Liquor and Wine.

The business, they said, just kind of dropped into their laps.

The store, 828 N. Main St. in the Main Street Center, opened Friday, Feb 3. It combines the spaces formerly occupied by Gleason Retail Liquor and Lansing Educational Achievement Program. Gleason went out of business in 2005; LEAP moved a few doors down at the center to a space formerly occupied by a karate academy.

"This is not my 9-to-5 job," Jeremy Greenamyre said last week as he and others were putting the finishing touches on the store for its first day of business. "This was just an opportunity we thought was too good to pass up.

"There had been a liquor store here for a long time. With him out of business, there was just one liquor store left in Lansing," he said. "I hope it can support two."

Jeremy Greenamyre said the store would emphasize its selection of wines and imported, premium beers.

In all, he estimated, the store has 300 different wines and champagnes in stock.

Aside from all the domestic wines, including a local and regional selection, the store offers wines from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Italy, Sicily, France, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, Spain.

"We've got wines from six continents," Daniel Greenamyre noted.

As for imported beer, the Greenamyres said their store's selection was among the biggest in the area. The selection should be attractive to all sorts of people, including beer lovers, foreign military personnel and the many U.S. military retirees and their families, Daniel Greenamyre said.

"We have all these people in town here that have been to international places, they may have lived in Germany for three or four years, with nowhere to buy the beer" they became accustomed to overseas, he said.

Prices at the store span the spectrum, from a $7 domestic wine and up.

"We've got something for everybody : a few $40 and $50 bottles of wine, a couple $100 bottles of spirits, a bottle of Dom Perignon - and if it doesn't sell by Valentine's Day, I'll probably be buying it," Jeremy Greenamyre joked.

The Greenamyres have been working on the store for about six months, navigating through the state's licensing procedures, trying to find construction materials in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and getting a 14-camera state-of-the-art security system installed.

The store will be managed by Brenda Bradford, who painted the mural of a vineyard that spans the store's south wall. She also did the artwork that graces other areas of the store.

"She's a very talented artist," Daniel Greenamyre said of Bradford. "When we were talking to her, she just mentioned she could paint a mural for us. : Pleasantly surprised doesn't quite say what we think about it."

The 2,900-square-foot store will be open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays.